The Woes of Tom Riddle
by Undying at Midsummer
Summary: As a last resort to save the Wizarding World, Ginny and Hermione go back in time to stop Tom Riddle becoming Lord Voldemort. Things go terribly wrong, especially when they meet someone they did not expect. GWTR, HGDM
1. Chapter One

** The Woes of Tom Riddle **

**A/N:** My first Tom/Ginny story... be nice.

* * *

The cool, crisp autumn air ruffled Ginny Weasley's dead straight red hair, making it strands slide across her face.

She stood there, by the edge of the cliff, dressed in black from head to toe. A few dead leaves brushed her pale skin and a small, lonely tear leaked from her eye.

She took a deep breath and tried to stop crying. She wiped the tear away and headed back to the funeral.

The funeral was just about to commence. A few newcomers looked strangely at Ginny. She knew she looked awful. The last time she was brave enough to look in a mirror her porcelain skin had been almost waxy-looking and as pale as a ghost's. That made the few bruises and cuts on her face stand out alarmingly. She knew how bloodshot her eyes were, and how red they were from lack of sleep and all her crying. Her hair had not been washed in quite a while – it was limp and greasy and fell past her shoulders in straight, dull-red sheets.

She was troubled, anyone could see that. Her eyes were deep green and dangerous, full of secrets and scenes too horrible to imagine. But still she was beautiful, and had grace. She walked straight, head held high, looking as delicate as a water fairy. Her face was hard set, completely blank, never showing the slightest bit of emotion. Ginny Weasley was no longer the cheerful, bright-eyed girl she had been in her Hogwart's years. Ginny had experienced too much pain since then, so much anguish. She had changed.

"Ginny."

Ginny glanced up, meeting the equally troubled eyes of her best friend, Hermione Granger. Hermione nodded to the funeral, which was beginning. Together they walked over to where the priest and the coffin were, sheltered by a large maple tree.

Across from her stood her stood her brother, Ron. Half of him was wrapped in bandages and rightly he should still have been in the hospital. But nothing could keep him away from the funeral of his best friend.

Harry Potter.

The priest started with his speech. About how Harry potter was such a great man – a hero. A hero who spent his last living moments fighting the most feared wizard of all time.

Lord Voldemort.

Ginny stood there, weeping. Somehow, the mention of Harry brought tears to her eyes. This was expected, of course. But she'd learnt to bottle her grief down and never shed a tear, however hard she was crying inside. She hated to cry – it showed weakness and she was strong.

The funeral ended and for the second time in her life she saw Harry's cousin, Dudley, whom she'd never heard much about, save that Harry had hated him.

And at the moment she could understand where that hatred came from. Dudley was mimicking the priest and smirking – _smirking_ – about how lousy Harry was. How he was a half breed loner who was nothing – how _dare_ he – when she got her hands on him –

A rage came over Ginny blinding her for a moment. Furious, she strode over on his back and her wand was out. She was ready to start throwing Unforgiveables at him. Anything that would cause him slow, pain. Death seemed too kind.

"Don't you dare _ever_ speak of Harry that way," she spat, placing her hands on his shoulders and pushing him to the ground. Fear sprang into Dudley's pig eyes and he stayed quivering on the floor – Ginny's wand was pointed right at his neck. And her eyes – like bright lights they were. Bright green lights of anger and hate, directed at _him._

"Ginny, what are you doing? Get away, he's just a muggle, he's not worth it!"

It was Hermione's voice, bringing reason to her. Ginny froze, and logic thought came back to her. Finally, she lowered her wand, send Dudley one last scathing look, then walked away.

* * *

Things were out of control. Dumbledore had died from an unexplainable occurrence, and now Harry, their last hope was gone. And Voldemort still roamed the land. He was injured; at least, it would be time before he launched his next attack.

But when he did, Ginny doubted they would survive.

Ginny had to do something – she wasn't prepared to let her world crumble so easily. She rang Hermione.

"Come over," she said. "We need to talk."

Hermione apparated over a few minutes later and they seated themselves on the couch.

"I've been thinking," Ginny said. "I know Voldemort has had as many time-turners destroyed as possible but I thought that maybe – well, you might still have yours…"

Hermione slowly nodded. "You want to travel back in time."

Ginny nodded, glad Hermione caught on so quickly. "My plan is to go back to Tom Riddle's time and someone avert things so that he won't turn out to be a dark wizard… maybe so he'll turn out good. Then… no more Lord Voldie."

Hermione cocked her head to one side, thinking. Finally she said; "It's so crazy, it just might work. But it would change lives. Harry wouldn't be famous, his parents wouldn't be dead… Draco Malfoy wouldn't be a Death Eater…"

They both tried to picture that. But couldn't.

"I want to try," Ginny persisted, her eyes wet. she had thought of this idea a long time ago, to use as the last resort. She never thought things would get so bad that she would have to do it. She always assumed the Light would win.

She was learning fast that the Light doesn't always prevail, like in the storybooks she read as a kid.

Hermione apparated back home to find her time-turner and by the time she was back, Ginny was packed and ready.

"But what – why – "

Not only was Hermione carrying the time-turner, she also had a suitcase and bag in her other hand. "Did you really think I'd let you go alone?"

Ginny sighed. "You can't go Hermione, they need you here. Besides, it's too dangerous – "

"If I don't go, then you can't use the time-turner," Hermione teased in a sing-song voice.

"Oh, alright," Ginny relented, but secretly, she was glad someone was coming with her. It took half the weight off her shoulders.

Hermione jotted down a note for Ron to find, and put the chain around both of their necks. She turned it fifty-seven times.

A roaring started in the ears, and they were leapt off their feet and were spinning around and around so fast they hardly noticed. Everything was black around them, then they blacked out.

* * *

Ron stepped into the house he shared with his sister, Ginny. He was thinking about her and was worried. Ever since the Dumbledore died and the war truly got violent, she'd changed. He remembered her first battle – Voldemort launched an attack on Hogwarts. They won, but Ron supposed Ginny had been traumatized by the sight of all the dead bodies strewn around the place. As far as he knew, she'd never seen a dead body before. At the moment the meaning of war actually meant something to her.

She'd become even worse when Harry died, which had been very recently. She was a deathly pale, no color was in her cheeks at all. Ron urged to her to do something, made her look in the mirror at herself, but she said it was just the way she was. How she'd always been. Ron, of course, knew better than anyone else how much bullshit that was. He remembered the smiling, happy girl she'd been a few years ago, and he missed her. He strained to think of the last time he'd seen Ginny laugh. She rarely did nowadays.

He was determined to do something.

"Ginny!" he called out, to an empty house. When he heard no answer, fear mounted upon him. He ran through the house, checking every room, when he slipped on the note Hermione wrote.

_Ron, _it said

_Ginny and I have decided that the only way to stop Voldemort is to go back in time to his roots and change Tom Riddle. Voldemort is like a weed - if you cut the top of a weed it will just grow back. You have to kill it at the roots – that's what we're doing here. Do not worry. Much love,_

_Hermione_

Ron cursed and threw the note down.

* * *


	2. Chapter Two

**The Woes of Tom Riddle**

* * *

**A/N**: So very very very sorry about the hold-up to any people who are reading my story. Life has been it's usual self – hectic. Oh well, here it is, I hope you like it.

* * *

The floor they were lying on was a cold, cold marble that seeped through her clothes and into her bones. The hallway they were in was dark – the only light being a nearby lantern swinging from the roof. The swinging light cast eerie shadows across the walls that would have chilled even the most fearless bones. Coupled with the cold stone walls and floor, it made the perfect haunted house setting. 

Ginny moaned, and shakily sat up, clutching her head. She had a massive headache.

Nearby, Hermione was doing the same thing.

"Ow," she said. "I hate headaches."

"So do I," Ginny said.

Faintly, in the distance, she thought she heard footsteps. They became louder, and soon, a girl with black, curly hair rounded around the corner, stopping short at the sight of them.

"I'm a prefect," snapped the girl, sneering. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

Ginny and Hermione stared, at a lost for words.

"_And_ you're not dressed in the correct uniform," the girl continued.

"Well, actually – " Hermione started with what she must have thought was a collected, friendly laugh.

"You've got suitcases with you," the girl said with a sigh. "Trying to run away now, are we? School too hard for you?"

Hermione bristled angrily. "_Actually_," she started haughtily. "We're new students. We got lost on the way to the common rooms."

The girl raised an eyebrow and her expression said quite clearly that she doubted them. Nevertheless she jerked her head at them. "Follow me then."

Ginny and Hermione struggled to their feet, gripped their suitcases tight and followed the girl down multiple unrecognizable corridors, to one they finally did know of. The headmaster's wing.

"Jolly good!" said Ginny, with fake cheeriness.

The black-haired girl gave her a scathing look. "You'd shut up if you knew what was best for you."

Ginny was sorely tempted to reply with a sharp _make me_ but for once she decided that the black-haired girl was right. So she shut up.

The door slid open and they followed her upstairs to where Professor Dibbet what hunched over some papers at his desk. Hearing their footsteps he sat up so fast and violently his neck cricked.

"Ow…" he moaned, "never mind, never mind, come in, come in." He smiled at the black haired girl and rubbed his neck. "Not as old as I used to be."

The girl gave an awkward short laugh. "Professor, I caught these students in the hallway with incorrect uniform and suitcases. They said they were new, but…"

"Ah," Professor Dibbet turned to them, and Ginny found herself locked in his eyes. They were blue, the deepest and darkest of blue with flecks of silver and Ginny couldn't look away. She was lost inside his eyes, marveling every flaw. A sudden sharp pain exploded inside her stomach and then it felt like the Professor's eyes were searching inside her mind and could see everything. The vibrant blue of his eyes in her vision went blurry and she saw nothing but fuzzy blue.

Then she blinked and the world sharply came into focus. Professor Dibbet's eyes became to her just the normal, everyday blue eyes of anyone's. How could she ever have thought that they were something special?

Professor Dibbet turned to the black haired girl. "Actually, Cherie, they are new students. Did I not tell you? It must have slipped my mind."

Next to Ginny, Hermione let out the breath she had been holding, and placed her hand on her heart, relieved. Ginny was also relieved – but puzzled. Professor Dibbet was defending them – that was obvious. What was happening?

Cherie was flabbergasted. "But – I – how – " she then collected herself. "Welcome to Hogwarts," she said, addressing them. "Er – I'm awfully sorry about my rude manner before, but I thought – well, it was complicated. I hope you enjoy your stay here and – " she swallowed, her face twitching, staring at a spot above their heads. She was obvious not used to being made a fool of. "Goodbye."

She turned on her heel and stalked out of the room.

There was a silence, in which the only noise was Hermione's heavy breathing and Cherie's footsteps echoing down the hallway.

Professor Dibbet leaned back in his chair. "So you're from the future, eh?"

"Er – oh, well – "

"Don't try to deny it," Dibbet continued. "I can see it in her mind." He nodded at Ginny.

She cleared her throat. "But, sir, how come you could read my mind like that?"

"Well, I don't know now. It would seem that your defense system against that is very weak, so I could throw it aside easily. You've probably been used sometime in the past before and that's affected your barrier." He smiled. "But I could be wrong."

Hermione and Ginny exchanged looks. _Tom Riddle_, thought Ginny. _He used me._

A chill crawled down her spine at the thought of seeing him again, face to face… in the flesh.

"Dear me, the future doesn't look very good now, if all you people keep coming back," Professor Dibbet continued, shuffling around papers on his desk and placing silver spectacles on his thin nose.

"Uh – all you people?"

"Well, I mean you two and – and that other boy… what was his name? Stuff and bother. He was sent by you, surely?"

"No," said Hermione, her voice trembling. "We didn't know anyone else had come back. I mean…"

"Didn't know?" Dibbet looked at them through the lenses of his glasses. "Didn't know?" he sighed. "What has happened in the future that's so bad you all have to invade here?"

"We can't say," Ginny explained. "No one is supposed to know. But we're here to stop it and it has something to do with Tom Riddle."

Dibbet looked at her and Ginny felt the sensation again of being trapped in his eyes. But looking at his eyes through the lens seemed to dull the power it had over her.

"Are you okay, child?" he said. "I sense great suffering."

"I'm fine. Really," Ginny insisted awkwardly. "Er – may we please go?"

"Ah, yes," Dibbet focused once again on his work. "I suppose you can stay in the Slytherin Common Room. Tell them you are temporary overseas exchange students. Goodnight."

Hermione and Ginny grabbed their suitcases, and with the speed of one being freed after many years in prison, they fled.

Outside Professor Dibbet's office, they halted, catching their breaths.

"What on Earth does he _mean_? Someone _else_ has _also_ gone back in time!" Hermione asked. Ginny looked at her, and was instantly hit with the figure of a mad woman. Hermione's hair, though not as bushy as it was five years ago, had regained its frizzy fuzz, and sneaky tendrils were flying about her head. Her eyes, full of fear and concern, were large and bloodshot, and she was twitching. Ginny backed away.

"He's just mad. That's all," Ginny reassured her.

"Huh," said Hermione, picking up her suitcase and heading off. Ginny hurried after her.

* * *

The approached the Slytherin Common Room for the first time in their lives. It was so quiet their footsteps seemed loud, and echoed off the stone walls. Ahead of them was a portrait of a serpent. 

Hermione shivered. The corridor was freezing – Ginny was willing to bet it was at least zero degrees. The cold had that unpleasant sensation of traveling straight to your bones and numbing them. She rubbed her goosebump-ridden arms.

"So," she said, tapping the portrait in a mock detective style. "This is it, then?"

Hermione was swaying from one foot to the other. "Uh-huh. What's the password?"

They were both stumped.

"Mudblood," Ginny tried.

"Slytherin."

"Pure-blood."

"Snake."

"Dar – "

The portrait door swung open with out warning so hard it smacked into the wall. The serpent let out a mournful cry.

A young man stepped out of the room, and for a moment, didn't see Hermione or Ginny. He was muttering to himself.

"Hopkins will help me later, all that means is that I need to get Lu – " he looked up at long last and jumped wildly at seeing them.

It was Tom Riddle.

Ginny thought it probably was the longest few seconds of her life. She hadn't looked on that face for about eight years or so, and seeing the face so real and so vividly was startling. The face that haunted her nightmares was always blurred, and Tom Riddle's face was so clear, and so real, it made her want to vomit from fear. As it was, the bile got stuck in her throat, and for the next few seconds, she could do nothing but stare in stark fear at him.

Tom, for his part, was looking at Ginny curiously too. At first it was the look most boys give a girl they find attractive, but then it changed to puzzlement, as though he was sure he'd seen her somewhere before, but could not, for the life of him, remember.

Hermione was the first to break the silence. "Hey. We're new."

_Great starting line_, Ginny thought sarcastically, but couldn't have done much better because the blockage in her throat didn't seem to be going anywhere yet.

"Uh, hey," Tom's puzzled look deepened. "Who are you guys?"

"We're new foreign exchange students. We were told we were going to be put in Slytherin." Hermione flashed Tom a cheesy smile, which he seemed to find alarming.

"Oh, right, like that other dude. Okay, then, welcome, the password is Potions."

"Thanks," beamed Hermione. After shooting Ginny another puzzled look, Tom pushed past them. Ginny picked up her suitcase with limp, numb fingers and after forcedly swallowing the lump of terror in her throat, climbed in after Hermione.

_He's just a teenager again_, she told herself. _He doesn't remember you and he won't hurt you._

_But he did before_, another voice in her head told her. _When he had to. You know what he's capable of._

She hastily shut the voices up, because the whole common room went silent when they entered. Hostile, unwelcoming gazes bored into her. But she was pretty much used to seeing dead faces. And she meant that literally, too.

Hermione cleared her throat. "Hi. We're new."

No one spoke.

"Where do we sleep?" Ginny asked, in a more direct manner. She spoke in her normal, cold voice, none of Hermione's fake cheer. The Slytherins seemed to warm to it anyhow, at any rate, because one of them pointed mutely to a nearby staircase.

She and Hermione marched off, and gradually the talk started up again behind them.

"So, what did you think of Tom?" Hermione asked, as they put away their clothing.

Ginny's heart skipped a beat. "Er – what do you mean?"

"Well, you never told me he was so cute!"

Ginny thought. The horror that terrorized her nightmares, cute? She thought deeper. Well, she supposed he did have a sexy smile that made her weak at the knees, and a cute habit of flicking his hair back from his face, but that was about it. It was strange thinking him as cute.

"I suppose," she left it at that. "I've just never thought of him as that."

"I imagine so." Hermione unfolded a shirt. "Oh damn, I accidentally grabbed one of Ron's."

Ginny recognized Ron's checkered shirt. "He won't mind."

"Never mind. Anyway, who do you think this person is? I'm worried about it. Someone else came back in time before us, who could it be - ?"

"No need to work your brain so hard anymore, Granger."

The cold, calculating, and very familiar voice came from behind them. They turned very slowly around, dreading who they might see.

"Malfoy!" Hermione spat.

Draco Malfoy leaned against the door and laughed.


End file.
